Tim Greenway, who is running for reelection as a member of the Roanoke School Board this fall, was charged with a misdemeanor related to elections.
Roanoke General District Court online records indicate that a misdemeanor class 1 charge was filed on Wednesday.
Greenway was released by a summons according to the online record. The arraignment scheduled for Thursday was postponed; a new hearing was set for October 16.
Brian Holohan, Roanoke County’s Commonwealth’s Attorney, said Thursday that Eric Branscom was named as the special prosecutor in the case before the charges were filed.
A conviction for class 1 misdemeanors can result in up to a year of jail time, a fine up to $2,500 or both. Greenway would still be able to serve on the school board despite a misdemeanor conviction relating to an election issue.
The online court records do not specify the charge, but refers to a section of the state code which deals with election-related crimes and penalties.
Greenway was under scrutiny this summer for issues relating to his paperwork in order to be on the ballot to run for the School Board race.
The Roanoke Times was the first to report on Greenway’s petition issues. According to The Times, Virginia State Police was reviewing the situation as of July 9.
John Lichtenstein, Greenway’s lawyer, wrote in an email on Thursday that “Tim accepted full responsibility for all the errors found on these forms.” There was no doubt about the accuracy of the people who supported him then and now as shown on the forms. Tim corrected his mistake and successfully submitted his forms.”
Greenway said he looks forward to serving the Vinton District as a member of the school board. First elected in 2015, Greenway has served on the Vinton District School Board since then.
Greenway had to collect 125 signatures of voters from the Vinton District in order to be on the ballot for November’s election. Greenway submitted the signature pages to Roanoke county registrar Anna Cloeter in May. However, Cloeter asked him to resubmit it to correct errors with the affidavits or notarizations.
Greenway, after Cloeter had told him how to correct the problems, submitted the recompleted petitions to Cloeter on May 27. However, Cloeter informed Greenway that he hadn’t asked the petition circulator to appear in front of a notary and re-sign their affidavits.
Cloeter stated in the letter that she had spoken with the Department of Elections of the State, the County Electoral Board and the County Attorney and still believed there were problems with the paper work. She also reviewed the problems with notarizations and affidavits. In three cases, a voter was seen to sign both a petition entry for their spouse and their own.
Email exchanges between Greenway, Cloeter and Greenway. Greenway qualified to be on ballot June 13 after submitting new petition pages. Greenway said to The Roanoke Times that the problems with his petition form were his fault.
Amber Reed, Greenway’s opponent in the November elections, was asked to comment on the charges against Greenway. She said: “I am very disappointed that Mr. Greenway didn’t follow the law.”
Cloeter wrote to Greenway in May that she had collected petition signatures for his campaigns for the school board between 2017 and 2021, and for the county board supervisors primary in 2024.
Cloeter announced Thursday that since the early voting started on Sept. 22, 817 votes had been cast by Vinton Magisterial district.
According to data from the state Department of Elections, there were approximately 14,000 registered voters in the district as of October 1.
